Dreams of Little Children
Disclaimer: Clearly, I don't own Torchwood.
Summary: Ianto observes Jack with the Doctor and Donna's kids and that leads to a heart-to-heart conversation. Ianto/Jack. Doctor/Donna. Part of the "Immortal Janto" series.
That's right. Ianto and Jack are discussing children!
Ianto heard Jack's voice before he saw him. Jack's voice had a distinct tone about it. It only got to that octave when Jack was either telling a story or having sex. Since they were clearly not having sex, it was safe to say that Geoff and S.J. were getting a very good bedtime story.
Donna and the Doctor had gone out for a quiet dinner in a small village on the northern continent of Thyrion 5, leaving Jack and Ianto to baby-sit the twins. Jack had been very excited at the prospect, since being the uncle of the children of a Time Lord was still new to him. Plus, he straight up loved his niece and nephew so much and was enjoying the large amount of attention that both gave him. The naturally out-going man fit right in, matching the boisterous Geoff's energy and drawing the normally more reserved and shy S.J. out of her shell.
As he turned a corner, the Welshman paused. He leaned against the doorframe to the twin's room. The twins were sitting on S.J's bed, staring at Jack with wide eyes and bated breath as Jack was acting out some fight he had had with an evil alien overlord. Normally, it was Ianto who told the bedtime stories, especially when the Doctor and Donna were out. The TARDIS was much of a story-teller and the old girl liked to listen in. But Ianto wasn't going to grumble about this. Jack was clearly having too much fun and it was nice to see the twins so taken with the (relatively) new uncle.
He didn't listen to Jack's story. Instead, he watched the faces of his niece and nephew as they watched Jack. The two were entranced. Honestly, Ianto didn't blame them. Jack had that quality about him, especially when he was telling a story. The two children giggled as Jack dramatically fell to the floor, pretending to be shot.
"Ianto!" Jack cried, arms flopped out on either side of him, "You have to save me!"
Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Ianto replied, "And how might I do that, Jack?"
"Only your kiss can reverse the effects of the evil, dread pirate's poison."
"Uncle Yan, you have to save Uncle Jack!" Geoff said, with a completely straight face. "Or else he'll die."
"Yeah, Yan, I'll die!"
Jack was just fishing for a kiss, Ianto knew. The pout on his lips was drop-dead sexy, not that Jack would ever show that to the twins. That look was reserved for Ianto alone. Still, if Jack wanted to give the kids an overdramatic show before bedtime, then Ianto was not going to deny him that opportunity.
Besides, seeing Jack beg like that was very entertaining.
Striding into the room, a confident grin on his face, Ianto gave a big, showy sigh. The twins were struggling to hide their laughter. Jack gave the two a very sad, hurt look, as if they had betrayed him in some way.
Ianto crouched down next to Jack and cupped his hands around his husband's face. Gently, he gave Jack a quick kiss on the lips.
"Please don't die, Jack. I don't know what I'd do without you."
When Ianto pulled back, he saw that Jack was grinning at him. There was no sexual innuendo under the surface, just simple love and adoration in his eyes.
Quietly, S.J. giggled, drawing both of their attention back to the task at hand. "Are you going to live happily ever after now, Uncle Jack? Now that you've got a kiss from your knight in shining armor?"
Trust a six-year-old girl (even a six-year-old Time Lady) to manage to put Jack into is place without really trying.
"Well, that all depends on if your Uncle Ianto is okay with being the knight in shining armor, S.J." Jack replied. He looked back up at his husband. "Because, if he wasn't, I guess I would have to save him then."
Ianto pulled Jack up into a seated position, wrapping an arm around him. "Don't worry, S.J. Jack isn't going to be getting rid of me anytime soon."
"Good!" the little girl replied as she barely stifled a huge yawn. Geoff, next to her, mirrored her yawn, oddly quiet in his exhaustion. Even young Time Lords and Ladies got tired, despite the claims of their father.
Jack looked at his watch and then back to the two children.
"Alright you two, it's past your bedtime." He pulled himself up off the floor (reluctantly) and crossed to S.J.'s bed. "I won't tell your parents that you were up so late if you won't." The two shook their heads wearily. "Good, now it's time for you two to get some sleep. Your mum and dad will be upset if you fall asleep during your TARDIS lessons tomorrow."
Geoff climbed down from his sister's bed and crossed the room to his side. Moments later, he was under the covers, holding the stuffed animal cat that he had had since he was a baby. Ianto smiled at that sight. He had been the one to get the twins their first stuffed animals – a cat for Geoff and an owl for S.J., since everyone else would have gotten teddy bears for them and the twins weren't normal children.
Ianto was silent as he watched Jack tuck in S.J. first, kissing the top of her head as she yawned again, burying herself under her covers. Then, he crossed the room and repeated the process with Geoff.
Once satisfied that the twins were safely in bed, Jack came to Ianto's side, taking his hand.
Quietly, the two left the room, the lights dimming behind them automatically.
In the hall, Jack slipped a hand around Ianto's waist. Ianto leaned his head against Jack's shoulder and they began the slow walk back up to the control room.
"You were good with the twins tonight," Ianto commented, after a few moments.
"Well, they're good kids, easy to get along with," Jack replied. "They don't really mind that I have weird stories."
Ianto laughed, rolling his eyes. "This is a weird place, Jack. They've grown up with weird." The TARDIS flicked her lights at that comment. "Oh, sorry about that one, girl. You know I didn't mean it."
"It still seems weird to me that you talk to the TARDIS and she seems to talk back."
"Mm, well I suppose I am more in touch with the Time Vortex that's inside of me than you are, Jack." Ianto did like baiting his husband sometimes. It was so much fun.
Jack kissed his ear. "Or you're just naturally sweet, caring, and sensitive."
"Which is what you love about me," Ianto replied, dryly.
"Among other things." Jack's hand went a little further south, but only stopped with Ianto took it and squeezed.
"Not until the Doctor and Donna get back. We don't want the twins walking in on anything."
"Why do you have to be so practical sometimes?" Jack asked.
That was an easy answer. "Because everyone knows that you're definitely not the practical one in this marriage."
Jack's laugh was hearty as they reached the control room.
The couple settled themselves in on the large, comfortable couch that Ianto had installed at the edge of the deck about two years after he started traveling with the Doctor. It was far more comfortable to sit there than anywhere else in the control room when the Doctor was flying the TARDIS. Even though he had three sets of hands (and three people who knew how to fly the TARDIS), the Doctor still liked to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, flying his beloved time machine/space ship.
Still, as he snuggled next to Jack, Ianto couldn't help but think about Jack and the twins. Seeing him with them had stirred something inside of him, something that made him realize what exactly he longed for and hoped for.
"Do you ever think we'll have children, Jack?" he asked, tentatively.
Jack looked at him, or at least Ianto thought that Jack was looking at him. He couldn't quite meet Jack's eyes.
"Of course we will. What made you ask that?" Ianto bit his lip nervously. "Ianto?"
He sighed. "It's nothing, Jack. I was just thinking out loud."
Tenderly, Jack's fingers found his chin and tilted it up so that their eyes were meeting. Ianto saw the look, that forceful and determined look that so defined Jack as a person, in his husband's eyes and he knew that Jack had meant what he said, one hundred percent. When Jack committed to something, he went all of the way.
"Ianto, we will have a family," Jack stated, as a point of fact. "One day, we will have children together because every single time I see you with the twins, I feel like that it should be our child you're holding, or cleaning up after, or picking up when they cry. There's a hole in our lives right now, one that we'll just have to bear with for the time being because we haven't met our kid yet, but one day we will. And, on that day, that hole will be gone, filled." Jack smiled and pecked his lips. "So yes, Ianto, we will have kids."
He didn't bother to hide his smile as he gently kissed Jack on the lips.
Jack held him tightly against his chest.
One day, Ianto thought to himself, one day it would their children that Jack would be telling bedtime stories. One day, Ianto could be the knight in shining armor, come to "save" Jack from his numerous problems with a kiss when his stories got too complicated.
And, as Ianto drifted off to sleep, he heard Jack whisper, in his ear, "One day, you'll make a great father, Ianto."
Hours later, when the Doctor and Donna returned to the TARDIS, they found Jack and Ianto curled up against one another on the couch, dead asleep.
Donna made a move to wake them up, but the Doctor stopped her. There was a knowing smile on the Time Lord's face as he led his wife out of the control room to go check on their children.
He might not have to hear the words, but the Doctor knew that they would be great parents one day.
After all, the TARDIS had told him that Jack was a great story-teller.
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